June 6, 2011, the date of my last post, so much has happened since then, where do I begin? We defeated Amendment 26 that year and Phil Bryant was elected governor and once again Mississippi's electorate proved itself schizoid. Progressives won big by defeating the Personhood Amendment, then gave the Republican the governorship. And he was the co-sponsor of the Personhood Amendment! How does that happen? The Voter ID amendment was passed, wish we'd had as much opposition to that as we did Personhood. In 2011, October, I think it was, we started a FB group for Left Leaners and began having frequent lunches together.  Also that year, I acquired an orphan kitty from Benji's doorstep and named her Scat.

AND I qualified for Medicare!

In 2012, Mike and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in December, Ricky and Mary Ann celebrated their 25th the week before, and I acquired my 3rd kitty Pete in October.

I broke my wrist and had it repaired with a pin in surgery. Benji moved in here in July and took a job with JPS, then quit it 6 weeks later. In April, Mike was hospitalized for acute kidney failure and ischemic colitis. Thankfully, he recovered. In December, he had what I believed to be another stroke, and was admitted again to St. Dominic's, but the doctors could not pinpoint any new damage to his brain and after a few days of rest, he was released. In November, we re-elected Obama for a second term. I attended my first JJH dinner and got to meet Congressman John Lewis. I participated in a couple of demonstrations at the Capitol, one was The War on Women protest, and the other was the reunion of the Occupy group formed in 2011.The Left Leaner group grew to almost a thousand members.

2013 was a rough year. It started with my being sick for 2 months with Whooping Cough. The biggest change was quitting church. With my vocal chords scarred from all the coughing, singing for more than 5 minutes without coughing was impossible. Attending church without participating in the choir holds no appeal for me whatsoever. And I learned to enjoy sleeping late on Sundays. I went into a depressed slump, Caregiver's Burnout, I guess, when my energy bottomed out and my osteoarthritis began bothering me like never before, especially my hips and knees. I began massage therapy every 2 weeks, very relaxing and soothing to my achy places, but they still ache, especially when the weather changes to cooler and wetter. In May, Mike was readmitted to the hospital with  MRSA, a type of staph infection that can be fatal. How many close encounters with the Grim Reaper can this man have?  In August, I attended a Civil Rights Demonstration at the Capitol, and in August, we demonstrated for Medicaid expansion. The Left Leaner group grew to 2000.

And that brings us to 2014. Thank goodness for FB Timeline or I wouldn't remember all these details. To be continued.....